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The message to the dispute between billionaire NHL owners and multi-millionaire NHL players was clear this week. With no talks scheduled and the potential for a repeat of 2004-2005, which saw an entire season erased over greed; hockey fans turned to video games. And Electronic Arts is benefiting.

EA Sports saw sales of its NHL 13 game rise 9 percent to 484,000 units in its first week at retail worldwide. Last year, fans had no worries about whether or not their favorite players would be playing for the Stanley Cup. This year, they’re using the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game as a way to enjoy their sport.

Perhaps more telling than the increase in sales is the amount of time fans are dedicating to the sport, at least virtually. With pre-season NHL games officially wiped out, puck heads will have a lot more time (and disposable income) to spend on things other than the NHL and NHLPA.

Since launch, fans have played over 3.7 million online games, or the equivalent of over 350 games a minute. They’ve created just under 50,000 of their own alternate versions of the NHL through the new GM Connected feature in NHL 13.

Even without a real NHL season, fans can experience the action on the ice without the high cost of ticket prices, beer and bad food inside NHL arenas. The New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins were the most popular teams used across all game modes in NHL 13.

There’s also more action in video game hockey. Fans have scored just under 5 million goals in the first week, dwarfing the 244 goals scored during the first week of the real 2011-2012 NHL regular season. After the last lockout, the NHL tried to further replicate the EA Sports franchise by opening up the ice and creating a faster pace to the action. But at the end of the day, hockey video games still provide a better experience. And that’s because you’re in control.

In NHL video game hockey – unlike the NHL – fans actually matter because we’re in control of everything. We’re the GM. We’re Ovechkin, Crosby, Giroux – and we can even be them all on the same team outside of the All-Star Game.

Timing-wise, it also works out nicely that the new NHL 13 game offers an excellent gameplay experience. Even without any competition from 2K Sports any more, EA Sports continues to push the hockey experience forward. New this year is True Performance Skating, which makes the game even more fluid, and EA Sports Hockey I.Q., which ensures players act like their real counterparts (assuming they were actually playing hockey this season).

NHL 13 also delivers brand new experiences that connect hockey fans to their friends and the real world of hockey with GM Connected. In today’s socially-connected world, rather than spending time watching hockey live or on TV, fans can play virtual hockey online with their friends in leagues. It’s the next best thing to getting out and skating on the ice – which is something else that fans will have more time to do this year.

If you’re a Los Angeles Kings fan, it looks like you’ll be Stanley Cup Champions for two entire years -- a feat that the Tampa Bay Lightning did back during the last lockout and lost season.

And perhaps best yet, there’s no option in the video game for a lockout or strike. Because as fans, we’re smart enough to know how ridiculous it would be to eliminate the on-ice action. Locking out the players is also locking out the fans, and we’re the ones who pay the season ticket prices that fill the coffers for both the owners and the players.

Who needs the NHL and NHLPA, when you can have NHL 13? It’s looking like a lot of puck heads feel the same way.